Book Titles - What is in a Name?

Recently, YA breakout novel writer Tomi Adeyemi accused the long-time prolific writer Nora Roberts of "stealing her title" for profit.

In a tweet, Adeyemi shared the two book covers and wrote: “It would be nice if an artist could create something special without another artist trying to shamelessly profit off it.”

Highly unprofessional move and seriously arrogant for a newbie to attack a millionaire writer whose career spans decades and hundreds of titles.

You can read Nora Robert's response here  and Tomi Adeyemi's Apology here. Roberts is hardly in need of additional publicity.

Firstly, you cannot copyright a title. Secondly, it is always a good idea to Google a potential title to see how many books share your book baby's name. Uniqueness is something to aim for in terms of search engine optimization. If either publisher had bothered to do a search on Amazon, they would find they were hardly the first to think of the title Blood and Bone. 

Published in 2013

Published in 2015

Published in 2015

Movie from 2017

Published in 2015

Published in 2018

Book I in the Blood and Bone Series Published in 2018

This spat offers several learning moments, especially for new authors and self-publishers:

1. Never attack another author, especially one more popular than yourself, on social media or where they will hear you. Rousing your fans to attack another author is bad form. (If that spitefulness is in your heart, that is on you.)

2. Make certain you are in fact accurate and can prove your allegation legally before accusing someone of plagiarism. That is a serious charge in the writing world. Don't use the term carelessly.

3. Do a quick Google search before you embarrass yourself.

The writing world is in many ways as small as it is vast. If you wish to be successful, or at least well thought of,  remember to treat others the way you wish to be treated.

It is better to be famous rather than infamous.